‘Embarking on a collaborative project with the emerging digital and conceptual artist Jeremy Gluck, we decided to embrace the digital narcissist emerging within us all’. (Rosemary Osborne)

“Dada used art to protest the absurdity of society. Nonceptualism uses absurdity to protest the art of society.” (Jeremy Gluck 2017)

In June 2017, at the invitation of ElthamHill School’s Lead Practicioner Rosemary Osborne, digital fine artist Jeremy Gluck began an unusual and pioneering digital art project with Year 7 and 11 students. #thestudentbeings project sees students produce anonymised “memes” in a short, set period of time and send them to the artist, who then processes or ‘glitches’ them and sends responses back to them. The memes are designed to stimulate discussion around current trends in society and also to capture the youth consciousness of the moment through the freedom created by the brief.

The idea is to utilise the digital arts to promote activities to reduce social isolation, improve mental well-being and promote self-confidence. It is also designed to reverse the negative image of ‘Generation Me’, whereby young people are disengaged by technology in a world saturated with digital information.

Uptake and feedback by students has been enthusiastic, with weekly sessions producing dozens of collaborative images featuring the hearfelt, often humorous expressions of #thestudentbeings. Creative areas have grown to encompass creative writing and community journalism. This exhibition provides an overview of the first phase of work with Jeremy Gluck of #thestudentbeings, whose insights, energy and expansiveness at collaborating so freely is impossible to mistake for being other than joy.